Results Reservation Technologies

Technology is deciding distribution deals for Amadeus

Madrid, Spain, 26 September, 2005: Amadeus, a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry, today announced new travel agency contracts worth 1.5 million bookings over three years. Big Travel/Flex Resor (Sweden), Carnival UK and Wings Corporate Travel (South Africa) will use Amadeus point of sale technology to book, invoice and fulfill payment for bookings which will be processed through Amadeus’ travel distribution system.

Amadeus, the world-leader in travel reservations, made 9.3% more bookings in the second quarter 2005 than the year before, and processed 29.24% of the world’s travel agency air bookings in the first half of this year (source: MIDT June). To extend this lead, Amadeus has invested EUR 100 million over the past three years in the development of travel agency technology solutions. Travel agency bosses with a keen eye on productivity like the efficiency of the Amadeus Sales Management Solution (Vista +ACE), which seamlessly passes booking data to the invoicing and payment systems.

"We looked at other IT providers but none of them could provide what Amadeus does," says Niklas Mattsson, Chief Financial Officer of Big Travel & Flex Resor, the third-largest leisure travel agency in Sweden. "We anticipate significant savings in our overall IT spend as we move from multiple systems to the one, integrated-solution."

Multiple systems are no longer needed because Amadeus Sales Management Solution (Vista +ACE), handles a wider range of functions, more efficiently and in more countries than the competition. Indeed, with Amadeus Sales Management Solution (Vista +ACE), 90% of the invoicing process is automated, and agents can carry out any mid-office activities without switching applications. The solution comprises:

• Amadeus Selling Platform (Vista), a browser-based sales platform used at 133,000 points of sale around the world;
• Amadeus Agency Manager (ACE Mid Office) an agency management solution which manages the invoicing, documentation and accounting of over 20 million tickets each year.

The latest release of Amadeus Agency Manager (ACE Mid Office), supports international accounting standards and offers smoother back-office communication across national boundaries than ever before.

"Today’s announcement is proof of the difference that Amadeus’ technology and distribution solutions make to our customers’ businesses," says Julia Sattel, Vice President, Markets EMEA & LA.

Claude Giafferri, Vice President and Managing Director of Travel Office Products and Solutions, the Amadeus division which develops travel agency technology, adds, “Our integrated travel agency technology focuses on taking the legwork out of necessary but time-consuming processes so travel agents can concentrate on selling travel and giving great customer service."
Notes to the editors:

Amadeus Sales Management Solution (Vista +ACE), is a unique point of sale solution consolidating all front-to-back office functions to seamlessly manage the sale of a complete trip; from reservations, to invoices, manual products, payments and more.

Benefits to a travel agency:

• Seamless and customisable access to both Amadeus Selling Platform (Vista), reservation functions and the Amadeus Agency Manager (ACE Mid Office) data.
• A single view of all data related to the trip with Trip Master Record (TMR) which brings together bookings, fees, sales documents and payments details from both GDS and non-GDS sources: equivalent to 5 screens in a traditional mid-office application.
• Fewer errors thanks to automated data exchange between Amadeus Selling Platform (Vista) and Amadeus Agency Manager (ACE Mid Office), with quality controls incorporated into the Amadeus Selling Platform (Vista) environment (as such the PNR is validated before being transferred to Amadeus Agency Manager (ACE Mid Office)).
• Amadeus Sales Management Solution (Vista +ACE) helps travel agents to improve customer service, offering total pricing at any time during the booking and providing high quality reporting capabilities.

Because these features are integrated into a single, browser-based application, the cost of deployment is lower, product updates are simpler and Amadeus provides a single contact point for all customer support. Training needs are also reduced by the integration with the full, graphical user interface.

Amadeus
Amadeus is a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry.

As well as serving the marketing, sales and distribution needs of the world's travel and tourism industry,
Amadeus provides a Customer Management System portfolio to the airline industry: Altéa Sell (distribution), Altéa Plan (inventory management system) and Altéa Fly (departure control system). British Airways, Qantas and Finnair are the first customers to implement this full suite of Customer Management Systems.

e-Travel, Amadeus’ e-commerce business unit, is the global leader in online travel technology and corporate travel management solutions.

Contact details:
Corporate & Marketing Communication
Amadeus
Tel : +34 91 582 0160
Fax : +34 91 582 0188
E-mail : externalcommunication@amadeus.net
More information about Amadeus is available at: www.amadeus.com